California · Nonprofit
THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT
THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT (California) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,473,492 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($3,344,064). 81 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $12M
- Funders on record
- 139
- Grants received
- $15M
- Net assets
- $12M
What The Ceres Community Project does
Mission
We create health for people, communities, and the planet through love, healing food, and empowering the next generation.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
We create health for people, communities, and the planet through love, healing food, and empowering the next generation.
$4,460,339 spent$1,045,570 earned by the program91% of program spendingCeres Community Project's mission is to improve health for people, communities and the planet through love, healing meals and empowering the next generation. We accomplish this work through the following program areas: . Community Health Model: o Client Meal Program - Providing medically tailored meals, groceries and produce "prescriptions" to primarily low-income people who are struggling with serious and chronic health conditions and their families. This program includes nutrition education. o Youth Development & Garden Program - Engaging 14-19 year old youth as volunteers and paid interns growing food and preparing 100% organic meals for our clients. Youth learn about growing, and eating healthy food, develop job and leadership skills, and experience their value and belonging as Contributing members of the community. o Engaging adult volunteers to strength social connections and connect people to their purpose and value. . Affiliate Partner Program - Ceres trains communities across the US and in Denmark to replicate our integrated model for community health and supports Affiliate Partners with ongoing support. . Policy & System Change - Through active participation in a dozen…
$19,120 spent$78,074 earned by the program0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $4,912,429. The per-program figures do not add up to the total the return states; both are shown as filed.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $7.2M to $23M (+222%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 2% · 2018 8% · 2019 10% · 2020 18% · 2021 12% · 2022 7% · 2023 13% · 2024 15%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
88% of THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (21% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Cathryn Couch
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 36 funders to 48 funders, grant income rose $636k → $1.9M.
26 of 139 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 50% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 139 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 22% of grant income, and it takes 7 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 7 funders to its left
66% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 17% · 2018 10% · 2019 16% · 2020 17% · 2021 14% · 2022 13% · 2023 22% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
49% of THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 58% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
50% of THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $7.7M that is directly attributable, 51% of it comes from funders outside California, across 23 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $7.8M arriving through sponsors registered in 14 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 3,288 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 3,288 human services nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $595k on record.
- Department of Agriculture$495k
- Department of Housing and Urban Development$100k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
82% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
83%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- Ceres Support Corporation · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT?
- THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT (California) receives grants from 139 organizations whose IRS filings report $15,473,492 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($3,344,064). 81 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 50% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT have?
- IRS filings report 139 organizations giving $15,473,492 in grants to THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT, 81 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $3,344,064 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like THE CERES COMMUNITY PROJECT find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 139 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing